When a lot of us think of "wizards," we think of frail, old men in pointy hats and sporting long beards. You know, the Tolkien-esque view. But a lot of us forget that Gandalf was rather badass, and certainly wasn't frail. Think of his battle against Saruman. Those guys were beating the hell out of each other and kept on fighting. Or Gandalf's fight against the Balrog. Well, The Roots of Magic takes that sort of "badass warrior wizard" and brings it to your tabletops as a new miniatures skirmish game that's up on Kickstarter now.

In the game, players collect their forces, which can include just a single wizard model, if they so choose, and compete against their opponents. The game is designed to allow for a lot of tactical choice even with just a model or three on the table. There's no, "I rolled my starting spell just right and you're dead." This is going to be a knock-down, drag-out fight where hitting your opponent with your staff is going to go along with creating magnificent spells.

The Kickstarter campaign is up and running now. It's about 1/4 of the way to its goal with still 28 days to go.